My friend Carrie and I decided to take a small hand-sewn project with us when we took our girls to Florida in February. Each of us grabbed a few pieces of felt scraps, needle and thread, and made a needle book for our sewing box. Originally, I planned to use 3 longer rectangular pieces and fold them to get 6 pages, but the felt pieces were too small so I decided to hold the pages together by sewing a spine on it, just like a hard cover book! Coming back home, I found this old button which is carved from a seashell, and painted.

I love how the colors go with my scissors cover … by accident! Instructions on how to make our Mother’s Day Scissors cover are here.

This is a perfect project to use whatever felt pieces you have on hand; wool felt scraps, favorite collected pieces or felt from old sweaters are all ideal. A good size for a needle case is about 4 inches x 5 inches, give or take a little!

Cut 4- 6 rectangles of felt. Cut a strip 1 inch wide and the same length as your needle book for the binding. Arrange the colors as you’d like to see them as you open your case.
Pin the strip of wool felt around the long edge of the needle case, like a book binding. Sew up, close to the binding edge, making sure you go through all the layers of felt. Use backstitch to get a good tight seam. Trim the felt squares as required to even them up.
Cut a 1 inch wide by 3 inch long strip of felt to make the closure. Sew onto the back cover, using backstitch again. Make a slit in the felt using sharp scissors. The opening should be just slightly bigger than your button. Add a special button to the front of your case, and it’s ready to use!
If you like, you can sew around the edges of the buttonhole to keep it from stretching, using blanket stitch. You could use a fancy embroidery floss and blanket stitch around the edges of your needle case- a canvas for your beautiful stitches as well as a perfect organizer for all your future stitching!
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GIVEAWAY!
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The winner-chosen at Random.org is:
Michelle, who wrote “I have just done a course on felting yesterday and really was suprised by what I had achieved in one day and will be doing this as an attachment to my craft list.”
Congratulations Michelle!National Non-Wovens has generously offered a wool felt assortment pack for the lucky winner! Their gift includes eight 100% wool felt sheets, in a collection of gorgeous colors.

Please leave a comment on this post by Tuesday, April 24th, 2012, for a chance to win this wonderful giveaway.

Nice project idea. I love working the the wool felt. I have had great success doing kids projects with it… decorated black with silver paint to make purses, poodle skirts, christmas ornaments, pincushions, etc.

What a great little sewing book! Thanks for the tutorial and thanks for the chance to win. I NEED some felt, I have so many projects brewing around, but don’t have the materials.. namely the felt. I hope I win!

I am def going to make this with some wool sweater scraps- I can never keep track of my knit/woven machine needles
I <3 the tutorials very much.
If I win the giveaway I am going to make my 2 1/2 year old daughter some lovely felt items
Bilee

When I very first subscribed to Living Crafts I was offered the kit for the scissors holder pictured next to the book. I still remember the promotion code, “MOM”. I never received it. But I’m a loyal fan of Living Crafts mag. I think I may just try to make the scissors holder on my own along with the felt book!